Video conferencing has been around for more than 20 years. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, though, you would find that many people needing to attend a meeting remotely would be calling from a real conference room full of their teammates. Today, we’re routinely holding video conferences that are 100% virtual. And this is creating a problem that technology can’t fix.

The problem is us, specifically the fact that we haven’t evolved socially to the point where we can bear much separation. So much of our well-being and work productivity is decided on how close we are physically. The removal of that for any period of time can be severely damaging. One surprising victim of social distancing is laughter.

Normally people laugh about 18 times per day. And 97% of that time we’re laughing with others — we are 30 times more likely to laugh with others than to laugh alone. Think about it: how often when you and your friends laugh at something that is actually funny? Research shows that 80% of what people laugh at is really not that funny.

So why do people laugh? They laugh in order to laugh with others. Just as everyone starts yawning when just one person yawns, most people can’t help but laugh when those around them do. This is why TV comedy shows often use prerecorded laugh tracks.

Laughing in response to other people’s laughing is not just a behavioral phenomenon. When we laugh, our body produces two key chemicals: endorphin which helps relieve pain and sets off feelings of pleasure, and dopamine which can improve learning, motivation and attention. In fact, studies show that people can stand 15% more pain simply by laughing for a few minutes beforehand. Laughter is also associated with higher motivation and productivity at work.

In today’s home-alone, virtual-team world, this is exactly what you as a team leader should be doing: for your team members to stay healthy and productive, you need to get them to laugh more and stress less.

The Earth’s ozone (臭氧) layer is on its way to recovering, thanks to decades of work to get rid of ozone-damaging chemicals, a panel of international experts backed by the United Nations has found.

The ozone layer serves an important function for living things on Earth. This shield in the stratosphere (平流层) protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of the sun’s radiation.

The international community was alarmed after experts discovered a hole in the ozone layer in May 1985. Scientists had previously discovered that chemicals, used in manufacturing certain sprays and used as refrigerants (制冷剂), could destroy ozone. Two years after the discovery of the dreadful state of the ozone layer, international bodies adopted a global agreement called the Montreal Protocol. This established the phaseout (逐步淘汰) of almost 100 man-made chemicals that were tied to the destruction of the all-important ozone.

In the latest report on the progress of the Montreal Protocol, the UN-backed panel confirmed that nearly 99% of banned ozone-eating substances have been phased out. If current policies stay in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values by 2040, the United Nations announced. In some places, it may take longer. Experts said that 1980-level recovery over Antarctica is expected by around 2066 and by 2045 over the Arctic.

The destruction of the ozone layer is not a major cause of climate change. But research is showing that these efforts to save the ozone layer are proving beneficial in the fight against climate change. “Ozone action is a pioneer for climate action,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us that what can and must be done-as a matter of urgency-to shift away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase.”

Charles Darwin, famous for his theory of evolution(进化)by natural selection, was a well-known biologist.

The Cambridge University Library in the UK contains a huge collection of Darwin’s documents that includes a pair of small notebooks known as the Tree of Life notebooks. They went missing over two decades ago, but a nameless person returned them to the library recently—wrapped in plastic and placed inside a pink gift bag. The notebooks reappeared with a simple printed message—“Librarian. Happy Easter. X.”

The notebooks got their nickname from Darwin’s 1837 hand-drawn sketch(草图)of his Tree of Life concept, which shows a branching tree as a metaphor for his ideas around evolution. The sketch is both simple and significant. ”They may be tiny, just the size of postcards, but the notebooks’ impact on the history of science, and their importance to our world-class collections here, cannot be ignored,“ says librarian Jessica Gardner.

The notebooks suffered a lot after they were removed from a secure room in 2000 so they could be photographed. The photography project was completed, but a routine check in early 2001 found the notebooks weren’t where they were supposed to be.

At first, the librarians thought the notebooks had simply been misplaced, but a series of searches over the years turned up nothing. A new search in 2020 included a deep dive into the boxes in the Darwin collection. ”However, this failed to locate the notebooks, leading to the conclusion that they had likely been stolen," the library says. In 2020, the library issued a public appeal for the return of the notebooks, which seems to have paid off.

To celebrate the notebooks’ return, the library displayed them in July in a free exhibition called Darwin in Conversation. We may never know where the notebooks spent their time away, but they should be back for good.